alarms.

prologue

This book takes place after the events of season 1. Everything in season 1 is canon and happens within this universe.

Some details are missed out of this prolouge as they are touched on within 'Eddie begins' & 'Inez begins'.

El Paso Texas - Diaz Family Home.

Edmundo tapped his finger on the table. Exchanging a worried look with his sister. "It's okay..." she mouthed. Eddie bit down on his bottom lip. the room was filled with the scent of their mothers cooking, and silence...

'I have news!' Inez blurted out. Their father dropped his fork by the side of his bowl. 'oh dios!' he sighed. "you're not pregnant! are you?". The room resumed to silence. "no, papi...". He sighed loudly in relief. Inez smiled awkwardly.

Eddie continue tapping his finger nervously. "baby..." their mother placed a hand on his shoulder. He came back round to reality, "sorry..." , he smiled at his young son sat beside him, scooping up some noodles onto christopher's fork and handing it to him, "here, Chris."

Their mother rubbed his back, with a look of confusion. "Okay..." she looks back over to her eldest daughter, "continue my love... your news" , she wasn't nervous before, but the way the built up at played out, she couldn't help but panic. she gulped. "Eddie wants to be a firefighter!" she exclaimed. "burro..." he sighed.

"Sorry..." she mumbled. Eddie was quickly to snap back, "and Inez is moving to LA", the family gasped. "with you and Christopher!", "If i accept the LA offer, i got an offer in Chicago too...", he looked down into his bowl. "no..." their mother, Helena sighed, "there is fires here Edmundo!", there is silence again.

Ramon fills the silence. "and you..." looking over to his daughter. "what is in LA for you?" , "The 118 needs another firefighter, but they need an EMT too.." she mumbled, quickly, almost whispering, not even pausing for breath. Eddie cocked an eyebrow. "speak up hermana..." he laughed.

She huffed. "Me and Eddie both were accepted 118 in LA! we got jobs! we're going!" , she picked up her bowl and threw it down into the dish water. "We weren't asking for permission mamá!". She storms away out the door, eddies eyes widen. "Chris is tired..."

Edmundo slowly gets up from his chair, then helping Christopher out of his. He kisses his mother's cheek. "Thankyou for dinner. It was amazing, mom." He nods to the other side of the table, where his littlest sisters sat. "Adriana, Sophia" , then moving his look to the head of the table, "Thankyou Papi!".

Days later.

The family had spent the last few days fighting. Helena had been sending links to Eddie about vacancies, in texan firehouses. Eddie never responded. She even called him a few times.

"Hello Edmundo!"

"Hi ma, can i call you back? i've got to get chris to school..."

"I can take him, I'll be right over!"

"No! i'll call you back. love you, bye."

He never called back.

Eddie didn't want to hear about El Paso vacancies. He'd been accepted at two fire houses, in two states far from Texas. He has had his own troubles. He needed this. He needed to start again. Somewhere new.

They planned the trip. He told their parents they planned the trip. & their parents invited them onto talk about this 'life altering decision' , and it wasn't really a talk. It was more of an argument. The things their parents said...They needed to get out. Now more than ever. For themselves and for Christopher.  And with that, Eddie told Christopher, there was a new adventure waiting for them.

They continued to call and next their children, day and night. Truthfully, they weren't happy with how the conversation went down either. But they still weren't happy about it. Eddie would pick up the phone now and again, but if LA was mentioned, he'd hang up. Whereas Inez was too stubborn to even look at their texts or listen to their voicemails. If her parents didn't want to be happy for her, she was in the state of mind where she didn't even want to know them.

Inez and Eddie were going to leave. The choice was final now. Travel fees were booked and it was happening. Whether their parents liked it or not. This situation was so much more difficult then it needed to be.

They constantly thought why this was such a big issue for their parents. What was so bad about a fresh start? Although their words still sat in his head: rotting. He knew he needed to be mature. So he was the one to reach out to his parents. Maybe they needed a goodbye more than he did.

They didn't apologize for the things they said. but they went and said goodbye nonetheless. It was in pursuit of their children's dreams. Who were they to stop them? Parents have to accept and support their children's dreams.

Don't they?